Bystander Intervention and Cyberbullying
Presenter(s)
Corrie Born
Abstract
With technology usage becoming a normal part of everyday life, cyberbullying incidents have increased and become a noticeable issue in today's society. Previous studies on this topic have used the bystander intervention model to examine the bystander effect with social media usage. The current study manipulates the severity of a cyberbullying incident and the number of witnesses to the incident, while also measuring participants perceived severity of the incident, their feelings of responsibility/intention to intervene, and their self-reported empathy level. It is theorized that severity of the incident will positively influence participants feelings of responsibility and intention to help the victim. Higher number of witnesses will lead to participants being less likely to feel responsible to help the victim and their intention to help the victim. The current study found that the number of witnesses did not affect how severe participants perceived the incident. This finding showed that participants who were in the severe condition where more likely to help and feel more responsible to help. The current study also found that participants who reported past exposure to a cyberbullying incident were more likely to help the victims, no. matter the severity, than those who had no previous exposure to cyberbullying.
College
College of Liberal Arts
Department
Psychology
Campus
Winona
First Advisor/Mentor
Carrie Fried
Start Date
4-24-2025 2:00 PM
End Date
4-24-2025 3:00 PM
Presentation Type
Poster Session
Format of Presentation or Performance
In-Person
Session
2b=2pm-3pm
Poster Number
6
Bystander Intervention and Cyberbullying
With technology usage becoming a normal part of everyday life, cyberbullying incidents have increased and become a noticeable issue in today's society. Previous studies on this topic have used the bystander intervention model to examine the bystander effect with social media usage. The current study manipulates the severity of a cyberbullying incident and the number of witnesses to the incident, while also measuring participants perceived severity of the incident, their feelings of responsibility/intention to intervene, and their self-reported empathy level. It is theorized that severity of the incident will positively influence participants feelings of responsibility and intention to help the victim. Higher number of witnesses will lead to participants being less likely to feel responsible to help the victim and their intention to help the victim. The current study found that the number of witnesses did not affect how severe participants perceived the incident. This finding showed that participants who were in the severe condition where more likely to help and feel more responsible to help. The current study also found that participants who reported past exposure to a cyberbullying incident were more likely to help the victims, no. matter the severity, than those who had no previous exposure to cyberbullying.
